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Car Collection
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The Tipton-Dyersville Car Collection |
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| Value Ratings: | |
| ☺☺☺☺☺ | Extremely good value, excellent service and performance for the price paid |
| ☺☺☺☺ | Very good value, good service and performance for the price paid |
| ☺☺☺ | Okay value, it worked most of the time but was overpriced for performance |
| ☺☺ | Poor value, poor performance for the money, had some problems |
| ☺ | Piece of crap, a true dog-box, send it to the steel mill for crushing |
| Year bought/Year sold | November 1973 - March 1974 |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | Ending = 107,000 |
| Engine/Transmission | 350 V-8, 4 bbl, automatic |
| Notes: | This was my first car. It was a former ambulance and had a siren. |
| Value Rating: | Not rated, I got the car free from my dad and it had 100,000 hard miles already. It didn't hold up long, but it was cool because it was my first car! |
| Year bought/Year sold | March 1974 - April 1975 |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | Ending = 84,000 |
| Engine/Transmission | 350 V-8, 4 bbl, automatic |
| Notes: | Genuine SS package, very good straight line performance, leaked gas out the back on hard acceleration. Engine failed at 84,000 miles. |
| ☺☺☺ | They overpriced it because it was an SS and I was too excited about it to be rational. It used lots of gas, and fell apart early. |
| Year bought/Year sold | April 1975 - September 1975 |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | unknown |
| Engine/Transmission | 302, V-8, 2 bbl, automatic |
| Notes: | Move to college in this. Everything I owned fit in this just fine. |
| ☺☺ | This was an ugly pig. Only good for hauling. |
| Year bought/Year sold | September 1977 - September 1978 |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | Unknown, I replaced three speedometers, no one knew what the mileage was when I bought it. |
| Engine/Transmission | 1600cc 4-cyl, dual-carb, 4 speed |
| Notes: | Best convertible and best shifter I ever owned. I the year that owed this car it worked okay for only about 12 weeks. |
| ☺ | For overall value, this was the very worst car I ever owned. It was fun on the brief fleeting days that it worked. |
| Year bought/Year sold | September 1978 - September 1979 |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | 77,000 - 91,000 |
| Engine/Transmission | 1600cc, 4 speed |
| Notes: | Really worked good. Almost no problems, until I drove it into a flood and ruined the engine. |
| ☺☺☺☺ | After the disaster of owning the MG, this car was refreshing. It worked all the time, used very little gas, it could haul lots of stuff and it was fun to drive. Because of news reports of Pintos exploding in crashes, the cost of used Pintos dropped quite a bit, and I really got a pretty good deal. |
| Year bought/Year sold | September 1979 - Summer 1988 |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | Ending = 100,000 |
| Engine/Transmission | 302 V-8, 2 bbl, automatic |
| Notes: | Worked very well. Very poor gas mileage. I moved a lot of friends. |
| ☺☺☺☺ | This truck, equipped with the V-8, used a great deal of gas which made it expensive to operate. However, it was extremely reliable and solid. I never had an incident where this truck stranded me. No matter how hot or cold it was, it turned right over and ran. |
| Year bought/Year sold | Spring 1980, Winter 1982 |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | Bought new, Ending mileage about 25,000 |
| Engine/Transmission | 4 cylinder, 4 speed |
| Notes: | At 22,000 miles, the engine blew. GM did not offer warranties longer than 12 month, 12,000 miles, so we were stuck. The mechanic told us that it was common for these modified Vega engines to just blow like that. We spent thousands (we didn't have) to repair this car, and we traded it as soon as possible. |
| ☺ | Terrible car, blows up for no reason, other than it was built like crap. Notice you never see any of these around anymore, no one collects this garbage. |
| Year bought/Year sold | Winter 1982, Summer 1988 |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | Bought new, Ending mileage was about 60,000 |
| Engine/Transmission | 5.0 liter (302) V-8, automatic |
| Notes: | This was a really beautiful car, and my wife liked it a lot. She got two speeding tickets the first year we had it. It was a great cruiser, but it started to fall apart after 50,000. We traded it when we had our second baby. |
| ☺☺☺ | After 50,000 miles, it started to fall apart. Once the entire dashboard when completely dead. It was a nickel-and-dime wonder at the end. |
| Year bought/Year sold | Winter 1987 - Summer 1995 |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | Bought new, Ending mileage 117,000 |
| Engine/Transmission | 2.0 liter 4 cylinder, 5 speed |
| Notes: | This was really a neat little car. There was not too much "sport" in it, but it did have a leather wrapped steering wheel. It was the first of the squished-jelly-bean Fords, and we always though it looked cool. |
| ☺☺☺☺ | You can't ask for more than 100,000+ from a little car like this. The seats got really bad as it aged, but it always had a nice shifter. |
| Year bought/Year sold | Summer 1998 - Spring 1989 |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | I really don't remember |
| Engine/Transmission | V-6, 4 speed, 4 wheel drive |
| Notes: | I thought it would be nice to have a 4 wheel drive, and this was my first 4Wd vehicle. However, this was a used car and it had a lot of issues from the previous owners. It over heated frequently and hauled very little |
| ☺☺ | A bad car, a worse pickup, not much of a value |
| Year bought/Year sold | Spring 1989 - March 2000 |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | Starting mileage, 33,000 - Ending mileage, 96,000 |
| Engine/Transmission | V-6, automatic, rear-wheel drive |
| Notes: | We used this as a farm truck. It hauled trailers and we had a stock rack to haul calves and hogs. Once we hauled 1800+ pounds of live sows in the back, and it about rolled the truck. We were impressed it lasted over 10 years and we sold it still running. |
| ☺☺☺☺ | A very good value for what we intended it for. Not a car, this was a truck. |
| Year bought/Year sold | February 1994 - December 2005 |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | Bought new, Ending mileage, 150,000 |
| Engine/Transmission | 2.0 liter 4 cylinder, automatic |
| Notes: | An unbelievable value. This car was cheap to buy, cheap to drive, cheap to insure, easy to fix and highly reliable. It went through three drivers in over 10 years, It was special. |
| ☺☺☺☺☺ | Invisible to thieves, cops and girls. The best deal I ever had on a car. |
| Year bought/Year sold | 1990 - Fall 1992 |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | I don't remember. |
| Engine/Transmission | 4 cylinder, automatic |
| Notes: | A commuter car. I bought it off a woman at work. It had a sun roof and a 3-spoke steering wheel. It was okay, but the rear-wheel-drive did not work on my country road. |
| ☺☺☺ | Pretty basic, not too exciting. |
| Year bought/Year sold | Fall 1992 - February 1994 |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | Ending mileage, about 89,000 |
| Engine/Transmission | 4 cylinder, 4 speed |
| Notes: | I loved this car. It had better traction than most of the 4 wheel drive trucks that I've owned. It went anywhere, anytime and got over 35 miles to the gallon. It was a slick 4-speed and was cheap to fix. I should have kept it longer. |
| ☺☺☺☺☺ | It was $601 with 66,000 miles. It was a super buy. |
| Year bought/Year sold | Summer 1995 - March 1998 |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | Bought new |
| Engine/Transmission | 4 cylinder, 5 speed, 4 wheel drive |
| Notes: | I really liked this car. It had 4 wheel drive, a 5 speed and a convertible top. It was a blast. However, it was a poor family car and nearly impossible to get good repair service. |
| ☺☺☺☺ | The car rated high but the parts and service rated low. |
| Year bought/Year sold | March 1998 - March 2002 |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | Bought new, Ending mileage 80,000 |
| Engine/Transmission | 2.2 liter 4 cylinder, automatic |
| Notes: | This was a vastly superior chassis to the Tempo in terms of handling and performance, but inferior in terms of durability. It required frequent chassis repairs and generally shook apart as we used it. The Tempo stuck together better. We kept the Tempo and traded the Contour. |
| ☺☺☺☺ | It was a pretty good deal and was generally a good buy. |
| Year bought/Year sold | June 2000 - Still in fleet |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | Bought new, currently around 94,000 |
| Engine/Transmission | V-6, 5 speed, 4 wheel drive |
| Notes: | The durability and reliability of this truck are second to none. This is bulletproof. It has a crappy truck ride and slides all over the place on slick roads. It is a handy hauler. |
| ☺☺☺☺☺ | It gets five stars because it's such a reliable, tough vehicle. |
| SPREADSHEET | Every tank of gas every bought, plus stats, you need Microsoft Excel to view |
| Year bought/Year sold | March 2002 - Still in fleet. |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | Bought new, currently around 75,000 |
| Engine/Transmission | 2.6 liter, 24-valve V-6, automatic |
| Notes: | I needed a car with more leg room. This was a better buy than the Grand Prix, the Camry or the Accord. It occasionally has alignment issues, and we work on the front suspension frequently. However it's very solid otherwise. Love that sun roof. |
| ☺☺☺☺ |
| Year bought/Year sold | Fall 2003 - Still in fleet |
| Starting mileage/Ending mileage | 96,000, currently about 122,000 |
| Engine/Transmission | 24-valve V-6, automatic |
| Notes: | I decided that I should always own one convertible. We used this for a school car for my kids. The previous owner was from San Antonio and the body was perfect. We rebuilt the engine in the summer of 2005 (unexpectedly) and it has stranded us a couple of times. It needs a new top, but were not going to replace it. It will become a fair-weather car. |
| ☺☺☺ | On a nice day with the top down, there is nothing finer. However, having to rebuild an engine always knocks a few stars of the ratings. |
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